The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) announced Wednesday that beep cards would be given free to commuters starting tomorrow, October 9, following the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Mark Salazar reported on “24 Oras” that LTFRB has released a memorandum making the Beep cards free of charge.
“Nagsalita na si presidente, no, na hindi natin bigyan ng dagdag pasanin ‘yung mga commuters patungkol sa gastos ng pagbibili ng card,” LTFRB chairman Martin Delgra said.
“Pangalawa, that has been the policy of the department. We concur fully, susundin natin ang direktiba ng president at Department of Transportation (DOTr) at kaya nagpalabas tayo ng memorandum circular,” he added.
Transportation Assistant Secretary Goddes Libiran said the memorandum would be implemented on October 9.
Libiran added said that the maintaining balance of the Beep card would be removed, meaning that passengers will only need to pay for their fare.
On Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Department of Transportation to make the beep cards free for commuters amid the implementation of a cashless payment system in public transportation.
Duterte, however, clarified that the beep card would be free of charge, but the passengers would need to pay for the fares or the load.
Beep cards free, no more maintaining balance starting October 9
“Give the card free,” Duterte said in the late-night briefing on Monday.
“I would like to talk to [Transportation] Secretary [Arthur] Tugade next meeting because I would raise with him the possibility of giving it free,” he added.
DOTr implemented the “no beep card, no ride” policy at EDSA Busway on October 1 but suspended it on Monday, October 5, after commuters complained of the expensive beep cards.
A passenger would need to pay P80 for the card, P65 pesos for the minimum maintaining balance, and a P5 convenience fee, P150 in total.
The President said it was “heartbreaking” to see commuters burdened in paying for a Beep card.
“Card lang naman ‘yan, ibigay na ‘yan libre. Bakit pabayaran pa ‘yan? We have been wasting so many billions to corruption tapos ‘yan hindi mabigay?” he said.
AF Payment, the cashless payment system operator, said they would give 125,000 free Beep cards “to ease the burden of passengers who have challenges buying a Beep card.”